Two-Fingered Sloth Eating Leaves at the Beach | Sloth Conservation Foundation

Sloths are primarily folivores – meaning an animal who eats leaves. Wild sloths have sometimes been observed to eat fruit and seed pods from trees. Sloths in captivity are often fed fruits and vegetables, but it is not known if this is good for them. Most animals don’t eat leaves because leaves have tough cellulose cell walls that are difficult to digest, have very few calories, and have a lot of toxins that can build up over time. Sloths combat this by mostly eating young leaves which contain lower levels of cellulose and toxins, and by rotating tree species in order to avoid a build-up of toxins. Although sloths, in general, are known to feed from more than 90 different tree species, an individual sloth will rotate among approximately 7 to 12 favorite feeding trees – a strategy that prevents them from overeating any one kind of leaf.